GVMC plans to floating bonds

Visakhapatnam, August 28, 2007

To raise funds Rs.100 crore for JNNURM

The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) is likely to float bonds to raise funds for the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM). According to available sources, an expert team from an independent agency will be here next week to assess the credit rating of the Corporation, said the Commissioner Mukesh Kumar Meena. The GVMC intends to raise upwards of Rs.100 crores by floating bonds. Merchant bankers DARASHAW from Bangalore will be visiting for an assessment.

He said that meeting the JNNURM commitment will not be difficult as more than 1200 crore worth of works for which administrative sanction had been accorded. Of the cost of the unit, fifty percent is grant, forty percent from Bank Loan and ten percent is beneficiary contribution. The cost of the unit had been raised to Rs.1.4 lakhs as of now.

Out of the remaining amount for JNNURAM, nearly Rs.300 crores will be the GVMC share, he added. Mukesh Kumar Meena who incidentally is the Chairman of Visakhapatnam Industrial Water supply Company said that the Board has decided to give 5 million litres a day to the AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation, a stock holder in VISWO, for supply to the Pharma City at Atchutapuram. He said that APIIC would lay a pipeline from the off take point to the Yeluru canal. The Commissioner said that the work on 6000 houses under JNNURM at Kommadi had already begun. He added that MLAs, corporators and official teams would visit all the slums and remove the names of ineligible and include fresh eligible names if found any.